From experiential knowledge to repeatable systems: Building an AI-powered presales engine

In many ERP and complex software projects, the presales phase sets the tone for everything that follows. It is where requirements are discovered, expectations are set, and the foundation for delivery is laid. Yet, in most organizations, presales success still depends heavily on the experience and memory of a few key people. When these individuals move on, take holidays, or shift roles, the knowledge they carry leaves with them. The result is inconsistency, missed requirements, and project risks that only surface too late.

Shifting from this reliance on individual expertise to a repeatable, AI-powered presales engine is the difference between running projects that survive and running projects that scale. That shift is exactly what Tato enables.

How experiential knowledge is holding you back

Every strong presales consultant has stories of deals won because they “just knew” what the client needed. They have intuition about which discovery questions will uncover hidden requirements and how to navigate tricky stakeholder dynamics. This skill is valuable, but it is not scalable.

When presales success relies on this kind of personal expertise:

• New team members face a steep learning curve, requiring months or years to reach full productivity
• Processes vary from project to project, making it difficult to measure what works and what does not
• Important details get lost between sales, presales, and delivery teams, creating gaps that lead to change orders and delays
• Stakeholder trust erodes when inconsistencies appear between the presales vision and the delivered reality

What organizations need is not to replace experience, but to capture it, standardise it, and make it available across the team.

The case for an AI-powered presales engine

A presales engine is more than a set of templates or a checklist. It is a living system that collects inputs from every project, turns them into actionable knowledge, and ensures that each opportunity benefits from the combined experience of the organisation.

When powered by AI, this engine does more than store past learnings. It:

• Recognizes patterns across similar projects and uses them to recommend better requirements
• Flags risks early by comparing current project signals to historical outcomes
• Automatically updates documentation as requirements evolve
• Ensures every stakeholder can see the same, up-to-date information in real time

How Tato transforms presales into a repeatable system

Tato takes the best of human expertise and builds a structured, AI-supported framework that ensures nothing is lost, forgotten, or misinterpreted. Here’s how each feature contributes to a true presales engine:

Requirement tracking

Presales teams often collect hundreds of requirements from multiple stakeholders, but without a central system, these quickly become scattered notes, spreadsheets, and meeting recordings. Tato centralizes every requirement from the moment it is captured, assigns ownership, and links it to relevant documentation. As the project progresses, you can trace each requirement’s status to confirm nothing falls through the cracks.

Capture and organize knowledge throughout the project

Every project generates valuable insights: how certain requirements were implemented, which workarounds were needed, and what pitfalls to avoid in future. Tato captures this knowledge in context, meaning that lessons learned from one project can instantly inform the next. No more reinventing the wheel because the last person who solved a problem left the company.

Provide real-time visibility into project status and risks

Presales teams often lose sight of requirements once the project is underway. This disconnect leads to mismatched expectations between what was sold and what is delivered. Tato eliminates that gap by providing live dashboards that show blockers, and emerging risks. If a high-priority requirement is at risk, the presales team can step in early, maintaining client trust.

Automatically generate and update documentation

Keeping documentation current is one of the most time-consuming and error-prone parts of presales. Tato automates this process by generating documentation directly from requirements and updating it as changes are made. This ensures sales proposals, statements of work, and handover packages are always aligned with the latest project information.

Ensure requirements are fully traced

In complex ERP or software projects, a missed requirement can cost weeks of rework. Tato’s requirement traceability ensures that every commitment made in presales is linked to a delivery plan, tested in execution, and confirmed as complete before sign-off. This level of traceability gives both clients and internal teams confidence that nothing is overlooked.

Connect teams with intelligent collaboration tools

Presales success depends on strong collaboration between sales, solution architects, and delivery teams. Tato’s AI-powered collaboration tools allow stakeholders to work in the same space, view the same requirements, and contribute to shared documentation. Intelligent suggestions from the system prompt better questions, recommend similar past requirements, and highlight potential risks before they become issues.

From one-off wins to scalable growth

The biggest advantage of moving from experiential knowledge to repeatable systems is scalability. Without a presales engine, your capacity to win and deliver projects is limited by the availability of your most experienced people. With Tato, every team member, whether new or seasoned, has access to the full depth of your organisation’s experience.

This shift delivers measurable benefits:

• Shorter ramp-up time for new hires: Standardised processes and AI-guided requirements gathering mean even junior consultants can run effective discovery sessions sooner.
• Higher win rates: Proposals are better aligned with client needs, backed by complete requirements and risk assessments.
• Fewer project delays: Real-time visibility ensures that requirements agreed in presales are met during delivery.
• Stronger client trust: Consistent, accurate, and transparent communication from first meeting to final handover.

Building your presales engine with Tato: A step-by-step approach

If your organization is ready to turn individual experience into a repeatable, AI-supported process, start with these steps:

1. Centralise requirement tracking
   Bring all your presales data into Tato from the outset. Avoid letting critical details live in disconnected documents or personal notes.
2. Standardise knowledge capture
   Use Tato to record insights as they happen, tagging them to specific requirements or project stages. This creates a library of best practices for future opportunities.
3. Integrate real-time visibility into presales workflows
   Encourage presales teams to stay engaged during delivery by monitoring dashboards. This keeps proposals and outcomes aligned.
4. Automate your documentation
   Replace manual editing with Tato’s automated document generation so your sales proposals, SOWs, and delivery handovers are always current.
5. Ensure complete requirement traceability
   Link each requirement from presales to testing and sign-off in delivery. This reduces scope creep and improves client satisfaction.
6. Promote intelligent collaboration
   Invite all relevant stakeholders into Tato early. Use AI-driven prompts to guide better questions and uncover hidden needs.

The competitive advantage of AI in presales

While many companies are experimenting with AI in marketing or customer service, few are applying it systematically to presales. This is a missed opportunity. The presales stage is where trust is built, where scope is defined, and where risks are either prevented or planted.

By embedding AI into requirement tracking, documentation, and collaboration, Tato transforms presales from a human-dependent craft into a repeatable, measurable, and continuously improving process. This not only improves project success rates but also builds a competitive moat. Competitors still relying on the heroics of a few senior consultants cannot match the consistency, scalability, and speed of an AI-powered presales engine.

Relying solely on experiential knowledge in presales is like building on sand. It might hold for a while, but it is not stable. By capturing that experience, structuring it into repeatable processes, and enhancing it with AI, organizations can build a presales engine that drives consistent wins and successful delivery.

Tato makes this possible with integrated tools for requirement tracking, knowledge capture, real-time visibility, automated documentation, requirement traceability, and AI-powered collaboration. The result is a presales process that is beyond repeatability. It is scalable and resilient, ready to grow with your business.

If you want to see how Tato can help you turn your team’s knowledge into a competitive advantage, book a demo today.